Electric-wire nail



km Model.)

. O. A. GILDEMEYER.

ELEGTRIG WIRE NAIL.

Patented Apr. 16, 1889..

N. PETERS, mwm'm her, Wauhingiun. ac.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

CHARLES A. GILDEMEYER, OF HADDONFIELD, NEW JERSEY, ASSIGNOR OF ONE-HALF TO MADISON RUSH, OF PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA.

ELECTRIC-WIRE NAIL.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 401,843, dated April 16, 1889. Application filed March 15, 1888. Serial No. 267,290 (No model.)

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that 1, CHARLES A. GILBE- MEYER, a citizen of the United States of America, residing at Haddonfield, in the county of Camden, State of New Jersey, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Nails for Fastening Nire, of which the following is a true and exact description, reference being had to the accompanying drawings,

which form a part of this specification.

My invention relates to the formation of nails adapted for securing wires in place on walls and like places, and especially it is intended for securing electric wires provided I 5 with insulating-covers in place.

The novel feature of my improved nail will be best understood after an explanation of the drawings, in which it is illustrated, and in which Figure l is a side view of my improved nail; Fig. 2, a top view; Fig. 3, a perspective view, and Fig. at a view showing the nail in use to secure a wire to a wall.

As is clearly shown in the drawingathe 2 5 nail is made up of a piece of metal formed into a long pointed rod, A B, a short parallel pointed rod, 0 D, and a connecting-bar, A O,

which is broadened out on the sides, as is shown atE E, so as to forma substantially flat connecting-bar of considerably greater width than either of the rods which it unites. A nailhead is formed, as shown, over the long spike or red A I3.

My improved nail is driven into the wall or 5 other place where a wire is to be secured by driving in the pointed rod or spike A B in the same way that an ordinary nail is driven. Before the short rod or spike O D reaches the wall the wire is inserted beneath the cross 0 bar A O, and the nail then driven farther in, the point of the short rod also penetrating the wall and making a secure fastening for the wire, and the cross-bar resting on the wire, as is shown in Fig. 4:.

I am aware that it is not new to construct nails and spikes so that they will have two pointed rods or spikes of unequal length con neoted by across-bar; but as heretofore made these devices have been found to injure the wire or the insulating-covering of the Wire. The cross-bar being narrow had a tendency to out into the insulatingcovering when driven down against it, and if not driven down the motion of the wire in the crotch of the nail rapidly wearing out its covering. By my device of making the connecting or cross bar with flattened and broadened surfaces I am able to grip the wire securely without danger of cutting into it, and I have also obtained another desirable feature by reason of this construction, in that the thin cross-bar is sufficiently elastic to yield under pressure, and thus in driving in the nail after the shorter rod or spike penetrates the wood the head of this spike can bend up to the level of the head of the longer spike, so that a hammerblow will directly act upon a short as well as a long spike, which is not the case with any of the older nails of this character with which I am familiar.

It is apparent that by broadening and flattoning the connecting cross-bar it becomes of less thickness than the diameter of the pointed rods, and this I have defined in the claim by the expression thin.

Having now described my invention, what I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

As a new article of manufacture, a nail for securing wire consisting of a pointed rod,a 8o shorter parallel pointed rod, a thin flattened connecting-bar broader than the pointed rods arranged with the plane of its surface substantially at right angles to said rods, and a nail-head substantially in line with the longer rod.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto sign ed my name this l-ith day of March, A. D. 1888.

CHAS. A. GILDEMEYER.

In presence of- CHAS. F. MYERS, A. HOWARD BITTER. 

